Manhattan, NY – Both Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama offered praise on Monday for the Times Square street vendors who helped identify a suspicious vehicle involved in Saturday’s failed car bomb attempt.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
As the AP reported, Mr. Obama personally called one of the vendors, while Mr. Bloomberg delivered his kudos at a speech in the South Bronx (although he appeared to botch the pronunciation of one of the vendors’ names).
Duane Jackson, 58, was one of the street vendors who helped spot a suspicious vehicle on Saturday that contained a failed car bomb.
Still, some vendors on Monday seemed miffed at Mr. Bloomberg. A day earlier, the mayor honored a police officer who helped discover the failed bomb by inviting him to dinner at a swanky Midtown restaurant. Yet the mayor did not extend the same invitation to the vendors, according to The Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group.
The mayor’s office told Reuters that it did invite one of the vendors, but that the vendor, Lance Orton, had been unable to attend.
On Monday, the Street Vendor Project created a Facebook page on Monday called “Mayor Bloomberg, Take the Hero Street Vendors to Dinner,” in an attempt to urge the mayor to include the vendors in his future dining plans.
As was reported, the collaboration between police and street vendors during Saturday’s attempted car bombing came at a time when the city and its merchants have been somewhat at odds over measures to limit vendor presence in some public areas.
In the spirit of unity witnessed in Times Square over the weekend, perhaps the mayor and those helpful street vendors should make a date to nosh on some lamb on rice, a schnitzel or even a hot dog.
The Street vendors saw the smoke BEFORE the police, so they are right.
stop wining!! they sound like little kids, whenever they do something which is expected of them they want a “prize”!!
why are they “heros” for calling the cops??!!
Sorry Mr Jackson but I see I am the one to teach you something important in life. While I am at it, I will twll you I am sorry that this will come as a shock to you.
The Democrat Party of which Bloomy is really a member of (he only switched parties to get elected on Mayor Rudy’s coat tails) is racist & despises hanging with the poorer class. Of course they want you to think they care so they give you all sorts of handouts to keep you down. Think of it, why try & grow if you will get handouts anyway.
So Bloomy the rich snob (listen tohim talk down to people who call his weekly radio show!) won’t be caught dead eating dinner with lowly street vendor.
That’s the way it is.
“”The mayor’s office told Reuters that it did invite one of the vendors, but that the vendor, Lance Orton, had been unable to attend””
Whom exactly are they kidding,!! I’m suppose to believe that, right??!!
Know what? We’ll purchase the dinner goods from street vendors? How is that, Duane?
Could somebody please explain why these guys are called hero’s? If you would be standing on the street and you’d see a car smoking not far from you, wouldn’t you call the cops or the fire dept? And if they were thinking that this is suspicious, of course they let the police know, rather than seeing it explode in front of their eyes! If they wouldn’t do it, they would be Crazy!